January 12, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Thanks to Toronto's sizable West Indian population, there's a lot of food and beverage variety. Mr. Goudas Ginger Beer is my new favorite guilty pleasure during long days and nights at IAJE. I've had ginger beer, but nothing like this. It will set your mouth ablaze.

Constitution Hall is just outside our broadcast booth. IAJE is showcasing a lot of college bands there today. The doors to the hall were open, and the sounds of blazing latin jazz were emanating into my ears. I had to check it out. It was the University of Illinois Latin Jazz Ensemble. Check them out on Eddie Palmieri's "Palmas":

I'm not the greatest fan of New York Voices, because I can't get beyond that vocal harmony sound. The rest of the planet loves it. I don't. But I absolutely respect what they do. Because they do it so well. You can always find New York Voices performing at one of the country's venerable jazz institutions, Pittsburgh's Manchester Craftsman's Guild. Their latest CD, A Day Like This, is Grammy-nominated. And they are a crowd favorite at IAJE. They're also first-rate educators, and members of IAJE.

Shows you how much I know...

New York Voices played to a packed house for the IAJE Gala concert. Among the highlights was a vocalese rendition of John Coltrane's "A Moment's Notice." They call it "Noticing The Moment." Listen for yourself:

In the middle of the set, they invited one of the IAJE Gala honorees, Paquito D'Rivera, for a couple of songs from a previous album, Brazilian Dreams. After Pac-man told a story about how he and trumpeter Claudio Roditi wrote "Snow Samba" during a Chicago winter, they launched into it.